What is included in the fee?
- We will obtain the information we need from you and send you a divorce/dissolution procedure pack.
- We send you a form called a petition which we will assist you in completing and then send to the Court office.
- We provide you with a Statement of Arrangements for Children and again assist you in completing this before sending it to the Court office.
- The Court papers are then issued and sent to the other party to the proceedings.
- The other party should then fill in a receipt confirming whether they agree or do not agree to the divorce being granted. This is copied to you.
- We then prepare a document called a Request for Directions for Trial which will need to be supported by a statement which we will also prepare and send to you.
- We will submit the paperwork and the Request for Directions for Trial to the Court to progress your case.
- The District Judge will check the paperwork to establish that you have properly completed your application to divorce/dissolution. If it is the case that they are satisfied with the procedure, they will then provide a date when the divorce/dissolution will be progressed through to it’s next stage, namely decree nisi/conditional order.
- Six weeks after pronouncement of decree nisi/conditional order, assuming there are no problems, and we do not advise you to delay making the application we will make an application to finalise the divorce/dissolution on your behalf to end the marriage/civil partnership.
Throughout this, we will tell you when any of the above steps have been taken. We have provided for 1 ½ hours of discussion with you by telephone, email or in person. In the vast majority of cases this is more than sufficient to deal with all of the issues arising in relation to your divorce/dissolution. We also include work up to two hours to deal with any queries arising from the Court. Judges who are not used to dealing with ex pat cases can sometimes need further time to consider complex law that may apply which may necessitate detailed questioning and replies. We are used to helping them in this regard.
In most cases the above follows through without difficulty. In some cases there are difficulties and we do charge extra for any additional works. For example, difficulties could include not being able to arrange service upon the other party or that of the party denying receipt of the papers, wherein we might then need to obtain a process server and so on. Any additional costs will be advised to you but would only be incurred on the basis of our receiving instructions to proceed.
